Chasing Our Tales: Long, Lost Family Tales

This week I heard from my second cousin twice removed, one of about 20 I have found on the internet. She told me her daughter had just given birth to a boy, and, by the way, did that make me the baby's aunt, cousin, or what? Well, it makes the baby and me second cousins three times removed. Now, I have real trouble with this removed business, so my husband, Rafael, always works it out for me. The removed, he says, stand for a generational difference.

I only bring this up because I find it fasinating how many cousins I have found, and how I have found them. Once I was reading a Texas Highways magazine in doctor's office when I spotted a name that rang a bell, Diana Claitor, and sure enough...it was yet another second cousin, twice removed...her grandmother and my mother were first cousins, you see.

Recently I heard from a guitar player in Maine (this is due to Rafael's guitar playing and internet lists) who sent me some stories I would like to share with you. Her name is Cathy Cowett, and you can visit her website at http://www.cathycowette.com/ .

She wrote: "Last year, a long lost cousin and her husband from Wales visited us for a week. Supposedly, they spoke English, but I didn't understand a word they said all the while they were visiting.

"It's an interesting story about how we discovered each other. Her great uncle had migrated to the Boston area, and they never from him again. All they had to prove his existence was a photo of him standing outside a bakery.

"She sent a copy of the photo and a letter, asking if anyone had information about him, to several people in the New England area with the surname Wakeling, Mom's maiden name. One of the letters was addressed to my grandfather. The guy in the picture was Gramp's father (Gramp had an original copy of the same picture), who had deserted the family when Gramp was 12 years old. Gramp only saw him one time after that when he came home and begged his wife to take him back, but she refused. They got into an argument and she ran out into the street and got run down by a trolley car or a carriage, I don't know which, and died.

"Gramp's father took off and no one heard from him again, although we've since found out he moved across the river to Charleston, where he remarried and had a large second family.

"My grandfather could never figure out why he was named Harold Francis Cronk Wakeling. He didn't know where Cronk tied in. Once we met my Welsh cousin, family tree in hand, she explained it all. Cronk was Gramp's grandmother's maiden name. Pretty interesting stuff! And no, none of them were involved in making grape juice, although they drank their fair share of the fermented variety.

"We suspected that my great grandfather had another family, because the Boston/Charleston area has more Wakelings than any other place in the country. Wakeling is a relatively rare name, and most of my grandfather's siblings migrated to Maine and Pennsylvania, so the Wakelings in the Boston/Charleston area, where Gramp was raised, aren't from the first generation of sons. They all left the area before they had children, and it doesn't appear that my great grandfather immigrated to the USA with a group of relatives. According to old records, he came over with a brother who didn't stay in the Boston area.

"There is also some evidence that the old guy, my great grandfather, who we knew was a baker, had something to do with patenting the Oreo cookie, or some other concoction that the Nabisco company eventually bought out and made famous. He and a couple of other area bakers were involved in it. Mom, who is a retired nurse, actually ran across someone, an old man who was her patient back in the '70s, who knew my great grandfather back in the early 1940s, and he told her the Nabisco story.

"You want to hear another strange story? There's this neighbor of mine, a guy who's about 45 years old, who just discovered he's adopted, and that he has a couple of half sisters and one full blooded sister. In fact, as a child, he went to school with his full sister and had no clue they were even related. He's been using my computer to communicate with her.

"And one more. When I was a kid, the minister at our church died, and they brought in a replacement who was so boring that our family decided to go to another church. We were sitting with Mom in this new church, when all of a sudden Mom got this very strange look on her face. Mom had discovered a young girl in the congregation who looked so much like she did as a child that it gave her the spooks. This girl looked much more like Mom than any of us did. We went home and dug out the photo album, looking at old pictures of Mom, and the resemblance was amazing. They looked like clones. Of course, Mom had to find out the details. This girl and her brother lived with their mother, a single parent. Once Mom learned this woman's name, it all fell into place. Mom's older brother had dated this woman for a couple years, and of course he fathered these two children. This girl was Mom's niece, and nobody knew it. At the time, Mom's brother wouldn't admit it, but now says they are most likely his children. He's in his 70s now, and the children are in their 40s. I don't believe either of them have ever met their real father, but they know who he is, and they know we're cousins.

"The same man also had a child with a Micmac woman when he was home on medical leave from the Korean War. The Micmacs are an area Indian tribe, with a huge reservation just across the border in New Brunswick, Canada. Sonny, Mom's brother, eventually went back to Korea, and the mother of the child didn't want the kid, so my grandparents raised him as their own child. He was legally his father's brother, legally my uncle, although biologically he was my cousin. There was no way of hiding his heritage from him, because he looks like he just rode in off the plains in an old west movie. He's definitely Native American. There's no denying that. But he was in his late teens before he learned that the guy he thought was his brother is actually his father!"

Now, talk about Chasing your Tales...those are some tales Cathy told. I do wish one of my cousins would turn up and bring evidence that my great-great-grandfather, R. D. Routh, was born...all I can prove is that he died!

Now on to a local Smith family. Evelyn Smith is looking for more Smith information. Here is her tale:

"There was an article printed in 1946 in a Palo Pinto County newspaper about the Smith family and their travel adventures in a covered wagon from (we think) Denver to Palo Pinto County land.

"Great Grandfather ____? Smith, a wagon builder, sent his wife ahead with their children in a wagon his company built. George Sandifer Smith born in 1873, died in 1933, then 17, my husband's grandfather, was the trail scout. They were lost in a box canyon in New Mexico once. There was an interesting part where some cowboy was following them from a distance for most of their trip. They thought he might rob them, but when they got into Texas he was gone. They finally settled in Palo Pinto County and built a rock house with rock from the land.

"George Clois Smith, my husband's father, was born in 1905 and died in 1946. The story in the newspaper was shown at a funeral December 1964. We thought some family member might have a copy of the article.

"All Richard Jerrell Smith's family has passed away. He cannot find any cousin still living. Would you have any information about this and where we could search for a copy of this article? I have just started to follow the Smith family tree. I am new to the genealogy trail. I would appreciate any advice." Evelyn Smith, richardsmith345@juno.com.

Another email: "I just discovered your story on Fortune Bend. My father's name was mentioned as one of the teachers. His name was Bob McNeme, and he also taught at Chick Bend, Lucile, Fox Hollow, and other locations in Palo Pinto County. I lived the first 13 years of my life in Palo Pinto County and recognize most of the family names listed in your article. Thanks for the very interesting article. I hope I can catch your future Articles." Bob McNeme Jr., rmcneme@sbcglobal.net .

If you can assist Evelyn or Bob with information about their families, please let her, and us, know.

Well, I am about out of time, so I should close. Hope to hear from lots of you. You can write me, Sue Seibert, P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061 or siouxcitysue@cox-internet.com . See you next time!